Louisiana rapper Mystikal has been handed a 20-year prison sentence following his guilty plea to a third-degree rape charge stemming from an incident at his home in 2022.

The plea deal came as a reduced charge from the original first-degree rape count, which carries an automatic life sentence. The sentencing cap under the third-degree rape conviction was set at 20 years which is five years below the maximum penalty for that offence.

The victim appeared in court on Tuesday and requested the maximum sentence. She described how Mystikal had choked her, pulled out her braids and forcibly raped her. Following her statement, the rapper told the courtroom: “If I did that to you, I deserve the max sentence.”

The sentencing was not without last-minute drama. Just days before the hearing, Mystikal filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, stating he was “under significant emotional distress and felt substantial pressure to make an immediate decision” when he gave the confession. The motion was ultimately unsuccessful.

Tyler has been held without bond at the Ascension Parish Jail since his 2022 arrest.

This is not Mystikal’s first conviction of this nature. He is already a lifetime registered sex offender, having pleaded guilty to sexual battery in 2003 and serving six years in prison. The rapper rose to national recognition in the 1990s and received multiple Grammy nominations in the early 2000s, including for his hit track “Shake Ya Ass.”